Wesley Fuller and Ducks Ltd.

Wesley Fuller

Wesley Fuller “All Fuller No Filler”

We all knew Perth-born, Melbourne-based Wesley Fuller’s follow-up to Inner City Dream would be good. Wesley was kind enough to be interviewed about this album while promoting the singles earlier this year. But from the opening chords of “Back to Square One,” you can see that his songwriting has improved exponentially. With the casual retro synth-pop of “Alamein Line,” or “The House of Love,” and the guitar riffs of “The Velvet Affair,” Wes takes the late ’70s influences and builds from that point.

Even though Wesley looks a lot like Jeff Lynne—and Lynne’s influence is palpable in several of the songs—there’s a lot more happening here that reveals itself after repeated listening. “Look No Further” takes a distant piano rhythm and turns it into magic with a loaded chorus of harmonies. Like the promise in the name of his record, there’s nothing here that feels like filler. Highly recommended and an early nominee for 2024’s top ten!

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Ducks Ltd

Ducks Ltd. “Harm’s Way”

In the same vein as power pop, jangle pop is an adjacent subgenre of music that has a timeless quality. Bands like REM, The Smiths, and Echo and the Bunnymen reimagined what the Byrds started in the 1960s in the late 1980s. Canadian band Ducks Ltd. follows the tradition of combining sparkling, jangly guitars with crisp vocals and thoroughly melodic songwriting.  The duo of singer-guitarist Tom McGreevy and guitarist Evan Lewis take great pains to make these songs stick.

“Hollowed Out” really does remind me of those college-era bands; The Ocean Blue or The Mighty Lemon Drops, without the psychedelic aftertaste. “The Main Thing” is another song that chugs away with a zippy chorus and a fast rhythm. Most of the songs hit that nostalgic mark, and this is another highly recommended album.

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More March singles and EPs: Oh Bummer, Extra Arms, Friends of Cesar Romero, Orbis Max, Paul Crane and the Overend Watts, The Electromagnets, Vanilla


Here we go again. We start with a video from Oh Bummer!, a band from the mind of Seattle-born, LA-based singer/songwriter Tanner Houghton. Tanner makes honest anti-pop music for people who don’t always fit in. He does this by combining his bedroom-pop delivery with trip-hop-inspired beats. It’s not power pop, but it still has a hook that kept me listening. Most impressive is the new single by Extra Arms, “I Don’t Wanna Surrender.” Ryan Allen and crew pick up after his top ten performance of last year and continue to dazzle us. Great energy from Friends of Cesar Romero, these guys get better every year and this freebie is a good example. Orbis Max and Dw Dunphy seem to channel Roger Waters a little here, and Paul Crane and the Overend Watts debut EP has plenty of crunchy guitars, from the pop-punk “Halfway Home” to the bouncy “Dypsomaniak.” When you gather like-minded artists, you could come up with The Electromagnets, a “supergroup” with Steve Stoeckel (The Spongtones), Peter Watts (Spygenius), Chris Church, and Dolph Chaney. Finally, I thought Vanilla’s Pish Posh project was confined to 2023, but it continues to grow, and some real gems appear, like the Lennonesque “Coil Memory.”







Rich Arithmetic and The Incurables

Rich Arithmetic

Rich Arithmetic “Pushbutton Romance”

The follow-up to 2021’s Shiftinggears takes a big step in the right direction for Rich Arithmetic (aka Richard Horton). The catchy standout opener “When You Want Somebody (To Make Love To),” features a combination of jangling guitar and a solid chorus with a swirling psychedelic break midway through. The influences; The Knack, XTC, and Martin Newell are easy touchpoints here. While the similarities to Newell are evident in the quirkier pop moments like “Battered & Broke,” his crisp 12-string guitar, understated bass lines, and harmonies on “Moral Blight” are closer to XTC’s Colin Moulding. There are excursions into folk in “Up To You” and surf guitar in “Saving Sunset.”

The three-part suite “A Teenage Hymn” recalls Pet Sounds (especially the first part) but takes its way to get through a vintage courtship, ending in a well-executed baroque instrumental finale. Getting back to power pop, “You are Always Right” is another winner, and Rich takes a bold chance with African-themed “Thema Toh Selah (Zambia Zombie Samba),” and it works beautifully. This is a wonderfully complete album that is highly recommended!

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The Incurables

The Incurables “Inside Out & Backwards”

Michigan quartet The Incurables are cousins Ray and Darrin Lawson on bass and drums, along with their lifelong friends Pat Kelly and Dennis Pepperack on guitars. They toiled on the local garage punk scene for years, and now Big Stir Records lets them loose. Influences here are The Ramones, The MC5, and Iggy Pop. “When I Grow Up” is like a punk slacker anthem that sticks a middle finger at that old Beach Boys chestnut with its ridiculous goals (“Never gonna happen!”)

The band plays it straight for the familiar-sounding “Far Away,” and the catchy, but repetitive “Soda Pop.” The frantic rhythms of “Back Into Eloise” have great energy and a solid hook, Additional highlights include the very Iggy-like “Funhouse” and dueling leads of “I Told Myself (Absolutely Nothing).” When they don’t take themselves seriously, it’s appreciated. It’s a record that deserves to be heard!

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March singles: Luke of Ulysses, Willie Dowling, The Amplifier Heads, Chaft, Softjaw


New month, and new singles! ‘Car Trouble’ is the debut solo single from Luke of Ulysses (UK Psych-Glam revival pioneers Ulysses). Luke played all the instruments and sang, except for a guest spot from his wife, Lily, as a hot French alien in the video. See the Bandcamp below for more! Willie Dowling has another single (“The Cure”) from his upcoming album to share (as a freebie), and The Amplifier Heads turn up the guitars and sax as it’s more rockin’ aliens. I had never heard of Chaft before, but I will be looking into this smart pop rocker from Norfolk, Massachusetts. Each of these 3 songs hit the mark, beautifully written and mixed. Finally, a solid single from California band Softjaw. “Waiting at the End” is a meat-and-potatoes power pop song along with a second single, “Pleased With Me” completed this month. Both deserve to be heard, and I hope a full-length LP is in the works.





Paul Collins and Elephant Stone

Paul Collins

Paul Collins “Stand Back and Take a Good Look”

Paul Collins, the “King of Power Pop,” always channeled rock and roll energy, whether he was with The Nerves in the late 1970s, with The Beat during the 1980s, or later with his solo works. Collins covers a variety of older songs from his prolific career on the new album, Stand Back and Take a Good Look. With a star-studded guest list (Dwight Twilley, Prairie Prince, Richard X Heyman, etc.), Paul sounds great at 67, and the song selection isn’t so much his “hits” as great songs that you may have missed. The songs are short, sweet, and get to the point quickly.

The title track, “Stand Back and Take a Good Look,”  the Jack Lee-penned song, is a bouncy opener about narcissism. The strong songs “I’m the Only One For You” and “In Another World” follow this. Both are excellent power pop songs. The country influences are all over the mid-tempo “Don’t Take it So Hard” and “You Can’t Go Back.” The experience of overseas touring is the subject of the jangling “Liverpool” and the folky “Under the Spanish Sun.” Collins does not disappoint, and there is no filler to be found. Kudos to the label, JEM Records, for signing him. It’s highly recommended!

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Elephant Stone

Elephant Stone “Back Into The Dream”

Canadian band Elephant Stone returns with their sixth album, a neo-psych pop stream of songs that swing between awareness and subconscious. You close your eyes, drift, and while listening to Back Into The Dream, which vaguely reminded me of a 21st-century version of those classic LSD-influenced Moody Blues records from the past. The band’s lead singer, Rishi Dhir, knows how to combine musical textures to create a rich aural tapestry that comes alive in technicolor melodies.

“The Spark” is a more straightforward, catchy earworm, with shimmering rhythm guitars. It gets even stronger with “Going Underground,” about the joys of listening to oldies and getting lost in the moment.  From here, it becomes even more surreal as “bae,” a trippy delight, and the epic “The Imaginary Nameless Everybody” follow their enigmatic paths amid lush harmonies and meandering sitar instrumentation. The road leads to the joyous “On Our Own,” a blissful look at adulthood. Overall, this is a wonderful listen and needs to be experienced as a full album. Highly Recommended!

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